Bikes Belong Awards $62,500 in Grants

Bikes Belong is delighted to announce support for five great projects in our Fall 2011 grant cycle as well as two grant recipients through the Bikes Belong Foundation Research Grant Program. These awards support innovative bicycle projects and studies with the common goal of putting more people on bicycles more often.

The Bikes Belong Grants Program is funded by our Employee Pro Purchase Program. Many thanks to the following participating members and their employees for making these awards possible:

Community Grants

Connect the Bike Lanes: 5th Street – Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA)

The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition will use innovations from the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide in this project to connect two segments of existing bike lanes along a popular corridor. Partners Georgia Tech, the City of Atlanta, and the Midtown Alliance share the goals of increasing safety and accessibility while making riding an appealing transportation option on campus and throughout the city. Bikes Belong’s grant of $10,000 will fund material costs while leveraging in-kind donations of engineering and design work.

Connecting San Francisco With Next Generation Bikeways (San Francisco, CA)

This $10,000 grant will help the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Education Fund lead community outreach efforts and engage stakeholders in the planning and design of three priority crosstown bikeways. In partnership with the Department of Public Health, the Mayor’s Office, and David Baker Partners, this project will help San Francisco work toward its goal of 20% bicycling mode share by 2020.

Greenline Connection Project (Memphis, TN)

Livable Memphis, in partnership with the City of Memphis and the Historic Broad Avenue Business District, will use this $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong to help construct a two-mile separated bikeway connecting Overton Park with the Shelby Farms Park Greenline. This critical segment will link two parks, a low-income neighborhood, multiple businesses, and a local community center and make cycling an easy and safe transportation option.

New Columbia Bicycle Skills Park and Community Hub (Portland, OR)

The Community Cycling Center is revitalizing a vacant lot in the mixed-income New Columbia community in North Portland to promote bicycling skills and physical activity for children and youth. The Center will work closely with We All Can Ride, a group of local residents and community champions in the planning, maintenance, and management of this innovative project. Bikes Belong’s grant of $10,000 will add to support from partners Home Forward, ODS, and the Bike Gallery to build an age-appropriate skills course and pump track and develop a bike skills learning and repair center.

Seward Avenue Bikeway (Grand Rapids, MI)

This 3.5-mile bikeway will run along the western side of downtown Grand Rapids, connecting two major trails and providing safe cycling access to businesses, residential areas, and Grand Valley State University. The Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition, CycleSafe, and Freewheeler Bike Shop are donating cash, equipment, and assistance to this project, and Bikes Belong’s $5,000 grant will help fund engineering and design costs.

Bikes Belong Foundation Research Grants

Benefits of the Swamp Rabbit Trail (Greenville, SC)

Upstate Forever is partnering with a professor of health and exercise at Furman University in Greenville to measure the impact of the Swamp Rabbit Trail development on communities surrounding it. Bikes Belong’s grant of $10,000 will enable researchers to examine real estate values, interview business owners, real estate agents, transportation professionals, and local government officials, and conduct intercept surveys of trail users. The organization hopes to use this study to promote greenway and trail development across the region and the country.

Bike-Share Station Local Economic Activity Study (Minneapolis, MN)

This study will analyze the impact of Nice Ride station usage levels on local consumer-oriented business activity. With the help of this $7,500 grant, University of Minnesota researchers will survey and interview businesses within a quarter-mile of selected stations for information about changes in sales and in the number and type of customer visits. They will also include questions in the Nice Ride subscriber survey about expenditures and use of the bike share system. The data will help the team evaluate bike share station impact on local businesses and, more broadly, in the Twin Cities area.